Thursday, January 22, 2004

Impossible Creatures (PC)

Rating: 5 out of 5

Pros: Originality and lots of replay value

Cons: None, great all around game

This is another one of many discount games I picked up at my
local Wal-Mart, value priced at only $4.77, instead of the normal
$19.86. With the box boasting such well recognized and popular names
like Relic and Microsoft, you can understand my surprise.

Impossible Creatures is a 3D real time strategy game from Relic Entertainment, the makers of Homeworld.
The game is set in the 1930's, where you play as an adventurer named
Rex Chance. Your father, Dr. Chanikov, who had disappeared years before,
contacts you and wants to see you. When you arrive, you find that your
father has been killed, and mutant animals are terrorizing the locals.

This is where the game takes on some originality. Your father had been
researching Sigma Technology, which allows you to take DNA samples from
two different animals and combine them together, creating super mutant
animals! The game comes with around 50 different animals to sample DNA
from, which leaves room for a lot of combinations. Also, you can take
different body parts from each of the two animals and recombine them in
different sets.

For example, take a tiger and a bear and pair
them together. Then, further customize your mutant creation by taking
the tiger's hind legs, with their speed and leaping ability, and using
the bear's front legs (for their stronger attacking ability). Use the
torso of the bear, because it is bigger, and maybe the head of the tiger
for it's better line of sight. The possibilities are astounding.

Unfortunately, you can only combine two separate animals together at
once - meaning you can't take your new mutant tiger-bear and give it the
tail of a skunk. Regardless of that fact though, there are still tens
of thousands of different combinations to choose from.

Some
creatures may obtain special abilities, such as a stink bomb, electric
strike, or quill throwing.. these can be obtained by using specific
parts from the base animal, such as the tail from a porcupine or skunk,
or part of an electric eel. These abilities must be used manually,
instead of automatically engaging when you attack an enemy. Other
abilities, such as leaping, or pack hunting, are automatic.

Your primary goal in Impossible Creatures
is to destroy your enemy, of course. You start out with a lab, and with
it, the ability to recruit henchmen. The henchmen can then build
lightning rods and power plants to supply electricity, or gather coal
from coal piles. Electricity and coal are the only resources available
in this game.

The better the creature you create, the more
coal and/or electricity is required to make it. Coal and electricity are
also needed to build new buildings, such as the water chamber (for sea
creatures), air chamber (for flying creatures), or sound beam towers (to
shoot at enemy creatures).

Upgrades also require resources.
Each creature you design can only be created once you have achieved a
high enough research level. These can be upgraded at the lab, and range
from level 1 (mostly regular animals), to level 5 (ultimate mutant combo
monsters). You can also build a genetic amplifier, and purchase stat
upgrades for your creatures, for a hefty resource price.

The
campaign mode features 15 missions across 14 distinct islands, as well
as an easy to use mission editor. Online multiplayer support is
included, for up to six players, but I would not advice using it unless
you have broadband internet, or at least a relatively good modem
connection. It was a little slow for me, connected at 28.8 kbps, and I
was only playing a two player game.

The background music in Impossible Creatures
is, for the most part, relaxing and unobtrusive. You hardly notice that
it is there most of the time. The sound effects do tend to get old
though, like in most RTS games. Henchmen sound like a dumb lug, and
creatures make different sounds when you click on them and move them,
though they tend to sound like the animal who compromises the majority
of their make up. There are also complete and well done voice-overs to
accompany the captions at the bottom of the movie sequences.

Impossible Creatures
uses a perspective camera angle to view the game, which is similar to
nearly every other RTS on the market. However, you can also zoom in so
far that you cannot fit a whole creature or building on the screen at
once. Even when zoomed in, the detail remains unbelievable. It's nice to
zoom in really close, and see just how different each creature actually
looks.

System requirements run about average for Impossible Creatures.
Only a 500 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM are required, as well as a
3D video card with 16 MB of VRAM. A 4x CD-ROM, sound card, and some
speakers or headphones would also help. The only requirement that is
really above average, is the hard drive space, weighing in at a hefty
1.5 GB. Oh, and for multiplayer support, a modem or NIC is obviously
required as well. ;)

There is a multiplayer map pack available
for download from the official Microsoft site, as well as a patch to
unlock 10 additional animals and a game update patch. Plus, if you have
the update patch installed, you can download the 88 MB Insect Invasion mod free of charge, which features new creatures and abilities, as well as new maps and environments.

With both patches and the Insect Invasion
mod installed, the number of base creatures grows to 75, instead of the
original 50. This effectively adds 50% more combinations to the already
huge number, yet the game remains simple enough to control and easy to
play.

This game is a must-play for any RTS fan. If you enjoy playing games such as Starcraft, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires, or Warlords: Battlecry, you should certainly give Impossible Creatures a try.. you will be pleasantly surprised.